Thursday, March 16, 2017

Data Visualization

Data visualization is a really cool way of showing data and a good way to get your point across. It is a linear process of decision making based on a few basic principles: the designer, the reader, and the data itself. In the video, a few data maps that stuck out to me were the ones about Facebook users around the world and flights taken in the United States. All of the different dots and lines for the data are all so interesting and nice to look at. It also shows the hot spots of where the most people are on Facebook or where the most flights were taken. Josh Smith said, "Data is just a clue to the end truth." The data's goal is to get truth across in a visually pleasant way. There is also always a hero of the piece. This is normally the central point of data that most people look at first and will look around following it. As you can see, data visualization is a very cool way to show data but it is all about showing different ways to interpret it.